On a headline level, Japan should show posture to settle with the U.S. on tariffs: Tak Niinami

On a headline level, Japan should show posture to settle with the U.S. on tariffs: Tak Niinami

award. Let’s bring in Tak Ninami, chairman and CEO of Santoi Holdings. Also, and probably more importantly, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives and Senior Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister. He joins us now live. Uh Ninaman, good morning. Great to see you again. It’s been a long time, so a pleasure having you back on the show. I I have to say uh you know and this has gone pretty public uh you’ve been commenting uh about why Japan has not been able to reach a trade agreement with the US uh yet even after seven rounds of talks and it’s significant that you’re saying it as the head of the uh uh chief executives association. I mean it’s not Kon but you know you could argue that it’s actually even more influential because it’s a lobby group for CEOs. explain to us why you think or what has been the main roadblocks or challenges why both sides have not been able to come to a deal. Well, first of all, President Trump had the very high expectations to Japan to become a showcase to other countries in terms of how to manage on the negotiations on tariffs and many issues related to the tariffs. But uh Japan didn’t align his expectations. So that brought a huge disappointment to the president and uh I thought that uh Japan should become the fast track to resolve all the issues related to the tariffs because as a consequence of the this lingering uh negotiations on the tariffs Japan’s uh uh consumer confidence has been uh weakened waning amplified by the uh current uh inflation concerns shared by the uh the general public. So I thought that um the government uh should have uh aligned like a 10% increase or 10% tariff as a risk protocol and the standard but uh the government Japan has been pretty much uh consistent not to accept 10%. So um as a matter of fact the Yeah. Yeah. Naman let me quickly jump in. Is it just about the reciprocal 10% or do you believe uh that uh the Ishiba administration should have just accepted uh 25% tariffs on autos and as well opened up Japan’s uh rice market to American rice? Well, to be honest, I think uh from the beginning, Japan didn’t accept the 10% even 10%. I think Japan should have analyzed that the 10% is a must and if that had happened we would not uh have been discussing uh the uh uh 25% which means uh as a consequence so I don’t think we should accept the 25% as a government but uh we should uh uh uh give the posture that Japan is going to open the country like a non barriers on the safety standards of the automobiles. So, and plus uh we should talk about how to uh uh agree on agricultural products to be imported more. But to be honest, um we are importing half a ton half a million tons of rice from the US and uh based on the doubleto standard uh we need to import 770,000 tons of rice and out of which we import half a million tons from the US. So there is no room for Japan to increase from that standard. But uh we could step into perhaps another half a million tons. But uh it needs lots of support from uh the uh uh the ruling party key people. You know we are now in the uh the time of the upper house elections. Yeah. And uh Ishiba is leading the uh uh uh the ruling party called LDP. LDP is now losing the elections. It’s not so popular. So which means at this moment he’s not in a position to make a bold decision to open the country for agriculture products. That’s a concern. But in the meantime, Japan wants to uh resolve and uh this uh you know frictions I mean friction with the United States and settle this uh um key issue of the terrorists especially automobile. uh so at least before the election day of the uh July 20th, Japan must show willingness and posture to settle and agree with the United States and I think at least line

Tak Niinami, Chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings says the Ishiba administration is unable to make a bold decision to open Japan for agriculture products from the U.S. ahead of the upper house elections.